I think I’m in love—with the sister in the middle, that is.
Andy & The Bey Sisters (with Kenny Clarke, drums), “Smooth Sailing” (A. Cobb), live, Paris, c. 1964
They sounded so good last Sunday—let’s hear some more.
Pastor B. L. Blade with Daniel Lanois (guitar, vocals), Brian Blade (drums), et al.
“The Maker” (D. Lanois), excerpt (“Oh, river rise from your sleep.”)
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lagniappe
random thoughts
How strange it seems sometimes, like the other day in the shower, to have hands and feet.
sui generis
Quintron and Miss Pussycat, “Freedom,” New Orleans
Too Thirsty For Love, 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
Language is finite and formal; reality is infinite and formless. Order is comic; chaos is tragic.
—John Updike, Assorted Prose (1965)
only rock ’n’ roll
Savages, “City’s Full,” live, London, 2012
the other night
I heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with pianist Yefim Bronfman, perform this piece. In The Human Stain Phillip Roth wrote of Bronfman: “Then Bronfman appears. Bronfman the brontosaur! Mr. Fortissimo. Enter Bronfman to play Prokofiev at such a pace and with such bravado as to knock my morbidity clear out of the ring.” Isn’t that what we want from music, one of the things, anyway—to have our “morbidity” “knock[ed] . . . clear out of the ring,” if only for a while, until it creeps back in?
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), Piano Concerto No. 2; Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana (Zoltan Pesko, cond.), Zoltan Kocsis, piano; live, 1995
1st Movement
2nd Movement (A)
2nd Movement (B)
3rd Movement
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two takes
It’s spring!
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” (T. Wolf & F. Landesman)
Betty Carter (1929-1998), Inside Betty Carter, 1964
*****
Bob Dorough (1923-), Right On My Way Home, 1997
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lagniappe
reading table
spring rain—
the uneaten ducks
are quacking—Kobayashi Issa, 1813 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
keep on dancing
How many steps separate the club and the church?
Theo Parrish, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2011
Cajmere, “Brighter Days”
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Wash up in the sound if you want to . . .
Theo inviting folks to the gig:
From Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport to Miles Davis Hall in Montreux.
Black Dub (Daniel Lanois, guitar, pedal steel guitar, vocals; Brian Blade, drums; Trixie Whitley, guitar, keyboards, vocals; Jim Wilson, bass, vocals), Montreux, Switzerland, 2011
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Set list (courtesy of YouTube):
1) Intro
2) Surely
3) I Believe In You
4) Steel
5) The Collection Of Marie Claire
6) Silverado
7) The Messenger
8) I’d Rather Go Blind
9) Ring The Alarm
Pastor B. L. Blade (with Daniel Lanois, guitar; Brian Blade, drums, et al.), “Louisiana Poor Boy,” Zion Baptist Church, Shreveport, La.
Most guitarists, most drummers would muck this up, thinking it needed a fill here, a roll there. Great musicians know how not to draw attention to themselves.
old school
Arthur Conley (1946-2003), “Nothing Can Change This Love” (S. Cooke), live (TV show), Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2001
music clip of the day 